CHRISTMAS SHOPPING 101
Last night I motored on over to Target for a little Christmas shopping. It was a dark and rainy night and the parking lot was packed. I therefore had to park a ways out. As I flung myself out of the car, I gripped my purse, put my head down and endeavored to miss as many raindrops as I could. (This is an important little fact you will understand later in the blog.)
I was there because I was looking for little, whimsical items to give to my work peeps. I zigged and zagged my way through the crowds, making quick decisions and basically throwing whatever struck my fancy into the cart. A few bath bombs, hair clips, face masks, a bicycle bell for our mail lady’s cart and a long sleeved t-shirt for me because I never seem to leave Target without a piece of clothing in my basket. Candy and a few Christmas tree decorations rounded out my choices. It was time to hit the check out.
Target lanes were packed but just at that moment a clerk came to open up a new cash register. I spotted this with my eagle eye and turned to take advantage of the situation. But not before a woman who was closer scooted over and got there first. I really didn’t mind as being second in a line is far better than being the 10th. I happily took my place and waited for what I thought would be a short interaction. She only had two items, for pity sakes. Two ugly Christmas sweaters. This should have been a quick exchange of sweaters for money. One would think. But, of course it was not.
The first sweater scanned with no problem. The second one hit a snag. She had picked it up in the men’s section where there was a sign it was 20% off. But it didn’t ring up that way. It rang up as being a children’s sweater with no discount. Now, you know what transpired. She asked the checker, who appeared new, young and ill equipped to handle this, to check again. And again. And again. It never rang up as anything different. I wanted to cry, “Stop the insanity,” but remained silent, ever patient, starting to wonder if I made the right decision with this lane.
It was then the customer asked for a manager and all my hopes of an easy, short line fled. I knew at that moment I would be here forever, trying to hold up my Christmas cheer while watching the minutes tick by. Behind me a woman came up with one item in her cart. I leaned over and said softly, “You might want to try another lane as this is going to take a while.”
The manager finally appeared, gave the okay for the discount, the clerk rang it up and it was a Christmas miracle. The shopper saved two dollars. If I had known that, I would have given her the money. She happily exited the store with her two ugly Christmas sweaters in a bag. And this only took twenty minutes to complete.
I approached the checker with my purchases, paid and went to get in my car. Except I couldn’t find my car. Now, I am going to be honest and tell you this is not the first time this has happened to me. I become distracted when parking and in a hurry and don’t always mentally mark my parking space. And so it was last night. I rushed out into the cold, rainy, dark night and realized I had no idea which lane I was in. I proceeded to trudge up and down every lane, punching my key fob hoping I would see the tail lights of my car come alive. But alas, to no avail.
As this has happened to me many times before my first thought is, “Somebody stole my car.” That is never the case and it wasn’t the case last night. On my second go around of the parking lot, in the distance I saw two red lights blinking in my general direction. I really had no idea I parked so far out. By this time I was cold, wet and laden with bags so I hopped in the car, flung my packages in the back seat and drove home.
Here’s hoping the next go around of Christmas shopping goes smoother. But, really, what are the chances?
magicalmess 